Spelman College president Mary Schmidt Campbell was recently named to a mayoral commission that will help determine the appropriateness of various public art, monuments and markers in New York City.
The city’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, announced the creation of the commission Friday, recognizing the “important conversation taking place right now about history and representation in public art, monuments and markers” in the wake of deadly clashes in Charlottesville, Va. this summer over monuments to Confederate leaders.
Locally, the debate has included the carvings of Confederate leaders on Stone Mountain.
Campbell has several ties to New York, including leading the Studio Museum in Harlem for 10 years and as former dean of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.